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Text Title
Text Author
Comment
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
SFH
Tomcat, Wild Bees, The Ballad of Calvary St, High Country Weather etc...
J.K. Baxter

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins

Playing God,
How We Fell
Glen Colquhoun
I would recommend Glen Colquhoun's poetry for all academic levels. You can basically get out as much as you can put in. Look at his collections, 'Playing God' (experiences being a doctor) and 'How We Fell' (the breakdown of a relationship).
No Ordinary Sun, The Old Place, The Sea to the Mountains
Hone Tuwhare
I use Hone Tuwhare poems with my Level 2 and I am planning to continue this for 2.1 next year. I use No Ordinary Sun, The Old Place and The Sea to the Mountains to the River.

I use Hone Tuwhare's poems - "No Ordinary Sun", "The Old Place" and "The Sea to the Mountains to the River" with my Year 12s for their written text assessment. They enjoy his work and I get some really good results.
May 1968
Alice Tawhai
The desire for things out of reach.
The Makutu on Mrs Jones
Witi Ihimaera
A little boy thinks a woman has been cursed, but her strange changes in behaviour turn out to be that she has unexpectedly fallen for the formidable tohunga, who she appears to hate.

I use "The Seahorse and The Reef" by Witi Ihimaera with Year 9 students as part of a unit on sustainability. We are going to be using "Ka Kite Bro" with Year 10 students as part of a unit on culture.
Unknown Citizen
WH Auden
Level 2 theme study on Oppression
Hawk Roosting
Ted Huges
About a hawk surveying his ‘kingdom’ but is also clearly a comment about how humans misuse their power.
A Rope for Harry Fat
J K Baxter
The corruption of those in office etc. It's about a young man named Te Whiu, one of the last to be executed in NZ for murder. Baxter pleaded for understanding, but he was unsuccessful.
Dulce et Decorum est
Wilfred Owen


Fleur Adcock


Carol Ann Duffy


Glenn Colquhoun


Lauris Edmond


Sia Figiel


Seamus Heaney


Langston Hughes


Ted Hughes


Karlo Mila


Wole Soyinka


Robert Sullivan

The War Poets
Brooke, Owen, Sassoon, Thomas














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